How to Create an Advertising Media Kit for a Local News Website
Turn “Do you sell advertising?” into a useful commercial conversation with a media kit that explains your audience, placements, and reporting.
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Quick answer
A local news advertising media kit should explain whom the publication reaches, what an advertiser can buy, how a campaign runs, and how results will be reported. Use dated audience figures, actual placement examples, clear commercial terms, and one enquiry action. A large follower count alone does not describe the audience available on your website.
Start with the advertiser’s buying decision
A local business needs to know whether your readers overlap with its customers. Begin with the places, languages, and subjects your newsroom covers. Describe your publication in a few concrete sentences: the district you report on, the communities you serve, and the publishing rhythm readers can expect. Avoid unsupported claims that everybody in the area reads you.
Keep the public media kit useful without requiring a sales call to understand it. A page on your own domain can show current packages and contact details; a dated PDF can help an advertiser circulate the proposal internally. Assign someone to keep both versions consistent when availability or pricing changes.
Use audience evidence with a date and definition
State the reporting period beside every audience number. Separate website users, page views, newsletter subscribers, and social followers: these are different measures and should not be added together as unique people. Where geography matters, use the location data you can actually substantiate and explain its limits.
For a new publication, describe the coverage and available inventory honestly. A sample placement and a modest pilot are more credible than a projected audience presented as an achieved result. Remove private reader details from screenshots and present aggregated figures that a buyer can understand.
Make each package deliverable
Define the placement, creative format, campaign dates, booking deadline, reporting method, and price basis. If creative production is extra, say so. A sponsored story needs a visible label and an agreed review process; buying a campaign must not imply control over independent reporting.
The following is an example structure, not a rate card or a statement that every module is available in every CMS plan. Only advertise formats your team can reliably deliver.
| Offer | Define before selling | Evidence to report |
|---|---|---|
| Section banner | Section, placement, dates, rotation, creative requirements. | Delivery and clicks from the agreed measurement system. |
| Clearly labelled sponsored article | Production responsibility, disclosure, approval, duration. | Published URL and the agreed article audience metrics. |
| Branded social video package | Number of videos, revision limit, distribution responsibility. | Approved outputs and channel results where accessible. |
Separate delivery from the advertiser’s sales
Explain what you can measure. An ad impression, a click, a website enquiry, and a completed purchase are different events. A campaign can deliver its agreed placement without proving that a customer bought something. If the advertiser wants lead measurement, agree how tagged links, landing pages, and enquiry records will be used before launch.
Include a short reporting example using clearly labelled illustrative data or a campaign you have permission to share. State what happens if a placement is unavailable and how changes are approved. Clear terms help a small sales team avoid a different unwritten agreement for every booking.
Give the media kit one useful next step
Use an “Ask about advertising” action that requests the business name, target area, campaign dates, objective, and contact details. Link the page from the publication footer and relevant commercial pages. Name the person or team responsible for responding, and record the originating page in the enquiry workflow where possible.
Before commissioning a website change, send your developer the intended packages and a sample enquiry. Ask them to demonstrate the page, mobile experience, form delivery, and measurement. A media kit is only useful commercially when somebody can buy what it describes and reach the team responsible for delivering it.
How SaraBiT Media fits
SaraBiT Media can discuss your news website, commercial pages, and advertiser enquiry journey together. Bring your actual packages to a demo so we can scope the required pages, placements, reporting integrations, and optional branded image or reel workflow without assuming that a CMS automatically provides an ad-sales system.
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